Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Happy Wednesday Students, Parents, and Carers!

We began our rainy Wednesday with sensory diets, integration, ring toss, Stacks, and Christmas dancing! Sensory diets are so important for regulation, auditory processing skills, teamwork, social skills, sportsmanship, motor planning, body mapping, sequencing, gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, and balance and coordination. Play is also important for creativity, language arts and communication skills, mathematics skills, role-play and drama, fine motor skills, teamwork, and social skills. Ring toss is a great tool to work on our fine and gross motor skills, visual spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, accuracy, turn taking, sportsmanship, and math skills. 

                                                                            Ring Toss

Sensory Diet with Mr. Dean

Stacks- a great fine motor, bilateral movement, team building, hand-eye, visual spatial, and math game.

Mental Blocks- Carter and Mr. Dean are working on patterns, visual spatial skills, problem solving, abstract thinking, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, 2D and 3D shapes, auditory processing, and number sense and numeracy.

Rock Star!

Here we are practicing our Christmas Play! Due to absences and integration we only had three friends perform, but they did amazing. They remembered all of the dance moves and worked on timing and rhythm, gross motor skills, bilateral movements, auditory processing, and team work!

In gym class today we played scooter European Hand Ball.  It was so much fun and everyone demonstrated great upper body strength, core strength, teamwork, social skills, social problem solving skills, sportsmanship, motor planning, body mapping, sequencing, gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, and balance and coordination.

In Mindfulness today we practiced being calm, still, and focusing on our breathing and heart beat. All of our friends were so attentive, focused, determined, and calm while working on their breathing, body awareness and body mapping, regulation, and flexibility.

In the afternoon we had two friends participate in the Art Reach program while the rest of us played Race Car Phonics! We had to demonstrate turn taking, letter sounds and recognition, blending and segmenting sounds, and reading and writing words.

At the every end of the day we used our gross motor skills, bilateral movements, and time and rhythm to practice our Christmas Play songs!

Lastly, we went over our Zones of Regulation and used different coloured blocks to symbolize how our day was, and how different times of the day went. We also got to share our own ideas and thoughts on how our day went, and took turns saying one nice thing about our friends from today's work.

                                                                   HOMEWORK:

To go over some of our favourite items/toys/clothes/photos/etc. and take a photo of them, develop the photos (Walmart has instant printing for 10 cents a photo), put them in a scrap book, and then write the date and year you got them, why, from where, from who, what it is, etc. During our Show & Tell all of us are having difficulties putting a specific place and time on our objects. Keeping a scrap book (journal log) of our items, toys, and memories will help us make connections, links, and begin to comprehend time and make the connections between past, present, and future events in our lives. This should be an ongoing project for the remainder of the year and then can continue on throughout the following years as well! Have fun with it and get creative!

 Spend 15 minutes reading a book of your child's choice, a cartoon, instructions, recipe, comic strip, etc. Make reading fun, engaging, an adventure, and not a boring chore. You can also have your child create their own picture story book using the 5-Finger Retell Model.

Work on money skills at home and out in the community. Have your child make their own shop, store, etc. at home using real items/foods. Price out items, look online for comparable prices, and then use real money (5 cents to 2 dollar coins) to make specific amounts, for example, have your child show you how to make $1.80 out of nickels, dimes, and quarters.

                                                                               Mr. Jacob : )

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Happy Tuesday Students, Parents, and Carers!

We began our Tuesday with sensory diets, integration, play, and Christmas dancing! Sensory diets are so important for regulation, auditory processing skills, teamwork, social skills, sportsmanship, motor planning, body mapping, sequencing, gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, and balance and coordination. Play is also important for creativity, language arts and communication skills, mathematics skills, role-play and drama, fine motor skills, teamwork, and social skills. Mr. Carter made his very own Pixar lamp with various materials during play! 

       Here we are using our gross motor skills, bilateral movements, language arts skills, and time and        rhythm to practice our Christmas song, as well as create lyrics for our new song!

After our Christmas practice we had some time to play freeze dance!

Here we are using our creativity, language arts skills, spelling and writing, and story telling knowledge to make our own comic strips. 

Mr. Eric was our teacher today and went over months, weeks, dates, days, year, weather, time, and feelings. 

Here is Mr. Eric helping his friends solve a problem on the bean bag.

In gym class today we played a few games with the parachute, and then European Hand Ball.  It was so much fun and everyone demonstrated great upper body strength, core strength, teamwork, social skills, social problem solving skills, sportsmanship, motor planning, body mapping, sequencing, gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, and balance and coordination.

In Mindfulness today we went over a fun Harry Potter yoga video from Cosmic Kids Yoga. All of our friends were so attentive, focused, determined, and calm while working on their breathing, body awareness and body mapping and flexibility.

Here is Mr. Carter helping Mr. Jacob clean up the playground and parking lot. Great job Mr. Carter!

1....2....3.....THROW!

In the afternoon Ms. Josephine led the students in a fun creative arts activity. Each student got their own canvas and long piece of tape. They then had to rip the tape up and create a picture using as many pieces as they wanted. Next, we painted over the entire canvas using various colours. Finally, when the paint was a bit dry, we peeled it off to reveal our cool creations! Everyone did this independently, and used their fine motor skills, creative art skills, math skills, and abstract and symbolic thought skills!

Clean up time! (team work, fine motor skills, life skills, communication skills, responsibility and autonomy)

In the sensory gym we worked on our hand-eye coordination, teamwork, sportsmanship, motor planning, fine and gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, math, time, phonics and rhyming skills, and balance and coordination. Today we used our practice clock, phonics box, rhyming games, and two-digit addition and subtraction while in the gym!

Thinking about our rhymes and phonics.

Time 

Our last activity of the day was choosing time. We have all done so much hard work in our integration sessions, sensory diets, cooking classes, and with our science projects, so we had play time. Play is so important for creativity, language arts and communication skills, mathematics skills, role-play and drama, fine motor skills, teamwork, life skills and social skills.

                                                                      

                                                                    HOMEWORK:

To go over some of our favourite items/toys/clothes/photos/etc. and take a photo of them, develop the photos (Walmart has instant printing for 10 cents a photo), put them in a scrap book, and then write the date and year you got them, why, from where, from who, what it is, etc. During our Show & Tell all of us are having difficulties putting a specific place and time on our objects. Keeping a scrap book (journal log) of our items, toys, and memories will help us make connections, links, and begin to comprehend time and make the connections between past, present, and future events in our lives. This should be an ongoing project for the remainder of the year and then can continue on throughout the following years as well! Have fun with it and get creative!

 Spend 15 minutes reading a book of your child's choice, a cartoon, instructions, recipe, comic strip, etc. Make reading fun, engaging, an adventure, and not a boring chore. You can also have your child create their own picture story book using the 5-Finger Retell Model.

Work on money skills at home and out in the community. Have your child make their own shop, store, etc. at home using real items/foods. Price out items, look online for comparable prices, and then use real money (5 cents to 2 dollar coins) to make specific amounts, for example, have your child show you how to make $1.80 out of nickels, dimes, and quarters.

                                                                               Mr. Jacob : )

Monday, November 28. 2016

Happy Monday Students, Parents, and Carers!

We began our sunny Monday with sensory diets, integration, play, math ring toss, and Blokus. Blokus is a great game for turn taking, abstract and creative thinking, complex communication, problem solving, math skills, fine motor skills, oral communication and sportsmanship. Ring toss is a great tool to work on our fine and gross motor skills, visual spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, accuracy, turn taking, sportsmanship, and math skills. Sensory diets are so important for regulation, auditory processing skills, teamwork, social skills, sportsmanship, motor planning, body mapping, sequencing, gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, and balance and coordination. Play is so important for creativity, language arts and communication skills, mathematics skills, role-play and drama, fine motor skills, teamwork, and social skills. 

Mr. Carter had some fun with Ms. Liz and other peers in the auditorium. They played musical chairs and demonstrated auditory processing skills, gross motor skills, balance and coordination, math skills, social skills, and sportsmanship. 

Before snack and recess we drew a picture of something we did this weekend, and then created and wrote a sentence about it! Our friends needed some help with spelling, but everyone did well practicing their writing, spelling, and language skills.

Sensory breaks are great for regulation, physical exercise, gross motor skills, body planning and mapping, bilateral movements, and for our vestibular and proprioceptive needs.

In gym class today we played a few games with the parachute, and then European Hand Ball.  It was so much fun and everyone demonstrated great upper body strength, core strength, teamwork, social skills, social problem solving skills, sportsmanship, motor planning, body mapping, sequencing, gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, and balance and coordination.

In Mindfulness today we went over a fun Harry Potter yoga video from Cosmic Kids Yoga. All of our friends were so attentive, focused, determined, and calm while working on their breathing, body awareness and body mapping and flexibility.

Our afternoon began with Music Therapy, where our friends get to express themselves through and with music, as well as use their fine motor skills to explore and play different instruments. While one group was in music, the other group participated in a barrier activity. Everyone did need some support from staff, but we worked on auditory processing, language and communication skills, mathematics skills, abstract thinking and complex communication, directional and positional language, prepositions, fine motor skills, and problem solving skills. 

At the every end of the day we used our gross motor skills, bilateral movements, and time and rhythm to practice our Christmas Play songs!

                                                                      HOMEWORK:

To go over some of our favourite items/toys/clothes/photos/etc. and take a photo of them, develop the photos (Walmart has instant printing for 10 cents a photo), put them in a scrap book, and then write the date and year you got them, why, from where, from who, what it is, etc. During our Show & Tell all of us are having difficulties putting a specific place and time on our objects. Keeping a scrap book (journal log) of our items, toys, and memories will help us make connections, links, and begin to comprehend time and make the connections between past, present, and future events in our lives. This should be an ongoing project for the remainder of the year and then can continue on throughout the following years as well! Have fun with it and get creative!

 Spend 15 minutes reading a book of your child's choice, a cartoon, instructions, recipe, comic strip, etc. Make reading fun, engaging, an adventure, and not a boring chore. You can also have your child create their own picture story book using the 5-Finger Retell Model.

Work on money skills at home and out in the community. Have your child make their own shop, store, etc. at home using real items/foods. Price out items, look online for comparable prices, and then use real money (5 cents to 2 dollar coins) to make specific amounts, for example, have your child show you how to make $1.80 out of nickels, dimes, and quarters.

                                                                               Mr. Jacob : )